THE FRANKLIN EVENT GETS A FIRST LOOK
AT THE 2026 KAYENTA NEW PLAY LAB!
Photos courtesy of Alan Holben Photography
Now in its fourth year, the Kayenta New Play Lab is where bold new voices in American theater come to life. Over three weeks, six visionary playwrights—chosen by a panel of esteemed local and national theatre-makers—dive into an intensive creative residency, shaping fresh, original works for the stage. The Franklin Event by Peter Sham was among the six scripts selected this year!
Written for America’s 250th Anniversary Celebration, The Franklin Event is a play that blends historical fascination with emotional longing. Legendary American founding father, Benjamin Franklin, by some unexplained electrical phenomenon, materializes regularly as if “on cue” before a live audience. The event has been hosted and moderated for many years by Grace Fournet, a historian and author who first discovered what is now called "The Franklin Event." The performance is framed as an intellectual curiosity: an evening with a man out of time. However, as the play progresses, the boundaries between the public and the private, the spectacle and the real, fall away revealing a love story haunted by time and inevitability. The great Ben Franklin, who sees Grace for the "first" time every night, never remembers her from previous evenings. Grace, who has watched him appear and vanish every night for some twenty years, has gotten to know him on a deeper level, and, through this repetition and loss, has come to love him. Grace has devoted her life to these encounters, her only way of keeping this “love affair” alive.
The Franklin Event celebrated a most successful staged-reading August 14 & 15. The play was directed by Los Angeles based, Paul Turbiak, and starred Lizzy Kimball as Dr. Grace Fournet and Matthew Nickerson as Benjamin Franklin.
THE AUDIENCE RESPONSES ARE IN:
“I left feeling iIIuminated .”
“Very moving.”
“The connection between the characters was really lovely and well crafted.”
“Thank you for this love story. The whole play became believable!”
“Clever premise.”
“What an "inventive" play!”
“Hilarious.”
“Beautiful.”
“I was absolutely drawn in to the story and the themes.”
“Very well written.”
Kayenta Arts Foundation’s mission is to develop and create an environment that fosters artistic endeavors for educational and cultural enrichment purposes. Our vision is to become Southern Utah’s premier venue for professional quality, multi-disciplinary performing arts in an intimate space, fostering awareness, appreciation, education, and enjoyment of diverse artistic forms and ideas.
www.kayentaarts.org
Lizzy Kimball as Dr. Grace Fournet
Matthew Nickerson & Lizzy Kimball
Matthew Nickerson & Lizzy Kimball
Matthew Nickerson & Lizzy Kimball
Chasten Roberts (Stage Directions), Matthew Nickerson & Lizzy Kimball
Matthew Nickerson & Lizzy Kimball
Director, Paul Turbiak
Playwright, Peter Sham
Matthew Nickerson, Peter Sham, Paul Turbiak & Lizzy Kimball
R.A. DICK’S ACCLAIMED ROMANTIC-FANTASY NOVEL– THE GHOST & MRS. MUIR TO BE ADAPTED INTO A NEW MUSICAL.
Having found itself on turbulent seas for many years The Ghost & Mrs. Muir is now headed for clear skies with a new creative team. Under the direction of Kenneth Hoyt (The Blue Hour of Natalie Barney, Arcola: The Sea Plays, and Old Vic Tunnels) this exciting project will feature book & lyrics by Peter Sham (Lend Me A Tenor: The Musical, and Sherlock Holmes and the Great Royal Goose Chase), and music by Kevin Purcell (Rebecca: The Musical and The Stranger from Seville). The writing team is currently in the final stages of bringing their To Catch A Thief: The Musical to London’s West End. The Ghost & Mrs. Muir is Josephine Leslie’s (whose pen-name was R.A. Dick) most famous novel. It was made into the beloved classic film directed by Hollywood legend Joseph Mankewicz (All About Eve, Cleopatra), and starred Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison. Set in the early 1900s, the fiercely determined young widow Lucy Muir defies convention and moves with her young child to the windswept Gull Cottage, perched on a rugged English cliffside. But her dream of solitude is soon interrupted by the ghostly presence of the home’s former owner—Captain Daniel Gregg, a gruff, charismatic sea captain. His spirit is more than restless, and he refuses to leave the only home he’s ever known. What begins as a battle of wits becomes an extraordinary companionship that neither of them expected.
The Ghost & Mrs. Muir is a timeless tale not of fear—but of courage, independence, and a love that transcends the boundaries of life and death. Director Kenneth Hoyt comments, “I have known all these years that there is a lush and sweeping musical lurking in the pages of the novel. It is a period piece yes, and I do think it holds a sort of classicism in its DNA, but at its heart it is a love story, albeit a haunted one. It has an illustrious history, and a stage version seems a natural fit.” The Ghost & Mrs. Muir hopes to set sail for a West End production in 2028.
TO CATCH A THIEF THE MUSICAL UPDATE!
To Catch A Thief: The Musical celebrated a successful in-concert staged reading at Skylight Music Theatre in Milwaukee, WI, last March 2025. The company was comprised of twenty-eight of Milwaukee’s finest performers, and included the talents of charismatic Australian-American star, Nigel Huckle (as John Robie), Australian musical sensation, Madeleine Featherby (as Francie), well-known Chicago actress, Liz Norton (as Maude), the dynamic, Samatha Sostarich (as Beline), and Broadway veteran, Andrew Varela (as Lepic). The production featured a seven-piece orchestra under the musical direction of Eric Svejcar, and was directed by celebrated regional director and SMT Artistic Director, Michael Unger. The new musical features book and lyrics by BTC producing artistic director, Peter Sham (Lend Me A Tenor: The Musical and Sherlock Holmes and the Great Royal Goose Chase), and a musical score by award-winning composer, Kevin Purcell (Rebecca: The Musical and The Stranger from Seville).
To Catch a Thief is David Dodge's most famous novel, and rightly so, Alfred Hitchcock firmly cinched its place in the annals of crime fiction by adapting it into an Academy Award-winning, classic film starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. Set on the French Riviera, the story centers on John Robie, an American expatriate and skilled gymnast, who once upon a time was "Le Chat," the famous and elusive cat burglar who worked the South of France. The legend of Le Chat grew with each crime. Following the war, Robie retires to a quiet life in France and vows to leave his past behind. His retirement is shattered when a copycat burglar commits a string of robberies that puts the police on Le Chat's trail again. Robie must catch the phony Le Chat before the police catch him.
To Catch A Thief: The Musical is now in its next phase of development. Rewrites and revisions are completed and a full producer’s workshop is currently in development in London. Stay Tuned!
Skylight Music Theatre's beautiful Cabot Theatre
The stage of To Catch A Thief The Musical
Nigel Huckle (as Robie) and Madeleine Featherby (as Francie) and Company
Nigel Huckle as John Robie
L-R: Samantha Sostarich as Beline, Nigel Huckle as Robie, Jackey Boelkow as Coco, Jonathan Riker as LeBorgne & Jason Peregoy as Jean Pierre
Madeleine Featherby as Francie, with Nigel Huckle as Robie
L-R: David Flores as Paige, Liz Norton as Maude & Andrew Varela as Lepic
Jamie Mercado as Danielle
The Cast of To Catch A Thief The Musical
The Cast of To Catch A Thief The Musical